Tiananmen Square Massacre

• Context (IE): Beijing’s Tiananmen Square massacre has completed 35 years.
• In April 1989, students from universities in Beijing convened in Tiananmen Square to outline a series of demands focused primarily on political and economic reforms.
• They also called for an end to corruption, censorship, and restrictions on fundamental rights.
• Their demands garnered extensive public backing, attracting support from various segments of society, including pensioners, veterans and farmers.
• May 1989: As the situation in Beijing grew more intense, martial law was declared.
• June 1989: Heavily armed soldiers and armoured vehicles advanced into the city centre to forcibly remove the pro-democracy protesters from Tiananmen Square.

Dismantling of Hong Kong Tiananmen Square Memorial 2021

• The 8-metre “Pillar of Shame” remembered the victims of China’s 1989 Tiananmen Square protests.
• The statue at the University of Hong Kong depicts a mass of torn and twisted bodies in a tall pile.

  

  Credits: Artnews

• It was erected in Hong Kong in 1997 during an annual candlelight vigil to commemorate the event.
• Until 2019, a massive outdoor candlelight vigil was held every year on the anniversary.
• Hong Kong authorities have banned the annual vigil for the last two years, citing COVID-19 risks.
• Its removal is seen as an attempt to silence the pro-democracy protests.

Hong Kong Protests Against China 2019

• 2019 protests were to oppose the government’s plan to allow extradition to mainland China.
• The protest recalled the pro-democracy Umbrella Movement (2014) five years ago.
• Broad timeline of protests:

Credits: Nagrik network

Pillar of Shame It is a series of works by Danish sculptor Jens Galschioet, all the same height and typically made of bronze, copper and concrete. They were erected in Hong Kong, Mexico, and Brazil and are designed to remind people of events to ensure they don’t happen again.

Boxer rebellion

• A Chinese secret society initiated the uprising, the Yihetuan (Righteous and Harmonious Fists).
• This group practised a form of martial arts that resembled boxing, at least to Western eyes.
• The ‘Boxers’ embarked on an armed campaign to drive all foreigners out of China.
• In some areas, the ‘Boxers’ were reinforced by better-equipped Imperial Chinese troops.
• In June 1900, the growing violence forced foreign diplomats, missionaries, soldiers and Chinese Christians to take refuge in the Legation Quarter of Peking (Beijing) and issue a call for international help.
• An eight-nation alliance quickly dispatched a 20,000-strong international force to help.
• Lieutenant-General Sir Alfred Gaselee, a British officer of the Indian Army, commanded it.
• The rebellion officially ended in September 1901 with the signing of the Boxer Protocol.
• The rebellion contributed to the removal of the Qing dynasty in 1911.